Jody Riley, from Merseyside, will now take care of her daughter Rosie full-time after the toddler was handed to the wrong grandad by staff at Kids Planet Crosby

Staff at a Merseyside nursery where a grandad was given the wrong child and drove away are not consistently keeping children safe, Ofsted have found.

An inspection from the education watchdog, found that safeguarding standards are not met at Kids Planet Crosby. The nursery referred itself to the watchdog after a two-year-old was handed to the wrong grandad on June 10.

Jody Riley, 37 and from Formby, Merseyside, previously told the Liverpool ECHO that she received a call from the nursery saying her daughter Rosie was picked up by another child's grandfather. Two-year-old Rosie was driven away for at least 10 minutes before the man noticed the mistake and returned her to the nursery.

The mother explained she was not going to take her daughter to Kids Planet Crosby again, adding she would be looking after her child full-time. An Ofsted inspection followed as a result with the findings published today, Liverpool ECHO reports.

Two areas that require improvement are "children's welfare and wellbeing" and "leadership and governance", inspectors found. The report states: "Leaders have not ensured that safeguarding procedures are implemented consistently to keep children safe.

"Weaknesses in staff deployment, supervision and collection procedures place children at significant risk of harm. As a result, children do not consistently benefit from the robust systems needed to protect their safety.

"During the inspection, children's privacy was not consistently considered during toileting and intimate care. The provider took immediate action to address this. However, children do not consistently experience the safe and well-organised environment they deserve."

Despite the "weaknesses", Ofsted stated that children develop warm and secure relationships with staff members, who know the kids' care routines, including sleeping, feeding and emotional needs, well. The report reads: "These positive aspects do not outweigh the significant weaknesses in the promotion of children's welfare and wellbeing."

Regarding safeguarding, inspectors explained that leaders have not ensured that there is "an open and positive culture" around this. The report states: "This puts children at significant risk of harm.

"Weaknesses in the implementation of safeguarding policies and procedures mean children are not consistently kept safe. Staffing arrangements do not always assure children's safety and risk assessment arrangements are not sufficiently effective in identifying, managing and reducing known risks.

"As a result, children are exposed to unnecessary risk and their safety and welfare are not consistently promoted." It added: "Following a significant safeguarding incident, leaders took prompt action to strengthen safeguarding arrangements.

"They improved collection procedures and restricted access to nursery rooms to reduce the risk of a similar incident occurring again. Furthermore, during the inspection, leaders took immediate action to ensure children's privacy is consistently maintained during toileting and intimate care.

"However, leaders cannot demonstrate that safeguarding arrangements consistently protect children from harm." The nursery failed to meet safeguarding standards and the requirements of the compulsory or voluntary part of the Childcare Register.

Due to this, the watchdog now plans to take enforcement action. The report said a Welfare Requirements Notice requiring the provider to undertake a four-point action plan had an assigned completion date of July 20, 2026.

Across the four other areas inspected by Ofsted, which included achievement, behaviour, curriculum and inclusion, the nursery achieved expected standard. A spokesperson for Kids Planet said: "We remain deeply sorry for the serious safeguarding incident at Kids Planet Crosby. This was an isolated and unprecedented incident, caused by human error when relevant and well established procedures were not followed.

"We cooperated fully with the relevant authorities and police, all of whom have concluded their independent investigations and are satisfied the matter was handled appropriately. We also immediately reviewed collection procedures and security arrangements and carried out an extensive internal investigation.

"We take Ofsted’s findings extremely seriously and have implemented a comprehensive action plan covering safeguarding, training, supervision, staffing and risk assessments. Ofsted returned on 22 July to review this work, with its outcome summary to follow.

"Ofsted’s report recognises our prompt response to the incident while also highlighting the setting’s strengths, including children’s progress, warm relationships with staff, inclusive practice and strong partnerships with parents and professionals.

"Children’s safety and wellbeing remain, and will always remain, our absolute priority. We are committed to learning fully from this incident and ensuring that the improvements made are rigorously and consistently upheld."